Free Republic

The news from sixty-four years ago this week. Record-setting heat, floods, a tornado, a hurricane hitting Florida, droughts, and a crackpot theory as to why it's happening. Things sure have changed, haven't they?

Taken from research for Michael's Modern Blog

Can he still be seen on TV anywhere?

I don't think so, but you can check out Billy Ingrams site www.tvparty.com to see some clips.

Also, Soupy's appearance on the Sept. 12, 1965 Ed Sullivan show is available on DVD, as part of the Ed Sullivan Presents the Beatles two-DVD set.

Soupy does a funny "reminiscence" with Ed and performs "The Mouse." (These DVDs are well worth getting for other reasons -- they contain four complete Sullivan shows, with commercials, featuring the Beatles and a number of other great, lesser-known performers).

Hey anyone know where I can get a map to color in?

Here's one that should come up pretty quickly:

http://www.grayraven.com/ec/

The more things change...

I found this sometime ago while doing research for my blog, Michael's Modern Blog

This is the first I've heard of Operation USO Care Package. I've happily sent them a $25 donation. Thanks for posting this.

Unintelligible?

Actually, it was. I watched the segment when it aired live on Thursday, and the audio quality on the taped portion was pretty awful. It wasn't until Keith sang the lyrics live that the words were clear to me. I guess I wasn't the only one.

Interesting to see "Wolf Blitzer Reports" devote so much time to Toby Keith's side of this. I guess CNN couldn't pass up a chance to stick it to ABC.

Another one that should be on any list like this -- Jethro Tull's Thick As a Brick. Not only a great LP, but the cover art provided plenty of good reading.

The Kinks' "Something Else" LP from 1967 needs to be on any top albums list. Ray Davies is one of the best songwriters of the 60s, and this album is his finest hour.

Also, I'd take Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" WAY over "Tonight's the Night."

Not many aware, but this is Crosby's last album with them. He quit the band before the release, and is represented by the horse.

According to the folks at snopes.com, that's a myth (although Crosby, to this day, doesn't think so).

The Story of the Notorious Byrd Brothers Album Cover

I like Roger McGuinn's comment: "If we had intended to do that, we would have turned the horse around."

They may not be pillars of the community but I'll bet most love this country and are totally pi**ed.

That reminds me of the theme of one of my favorite Bogart movies. IIRC, it goes like this:

In "All Through the Night" (1941), Bogie played an affable New York City gambler/hoodlum hiding from the cops after being framed for a murder. While he and his underlings try to clear him, they stumble across a mammoth Nazi spy ring led by future "Casablanca" co-stars Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre.

The police are no help, so Bogart rounds up some fellow hoods -- and makes a red, white, and blue speech about their need to band together against the fascists and keep America safe for good ol' traditional gangsterism.

The mugs descend on the secret Nazi HQ and beat the stuffing out of hundreds of Axis agents. Bogart personally foils Veidt's attempt to mount a suicide attack on a troopship near the Statue of Liberty.

In the end, Bogart's cleared of the murder charge, the cops hail him as a hero, and he mulls over how those hundreds of sneaky Nazi agents succeeded in blending into ordinary American life. Just then, his mom runs up to him and complains that her milkman has disappeared. The End.

Wouldn't happen in real life, of course, but it's a swell movie - the only gangster-spy-comedy I've ever run across.

Garbage out, garbage in.

"Where's the rest of this moose?"

But, take heart. In the 1926 World Series, the Yankees probably fielded their second best team of all time. The Cardinals came back from a 3-2 deficit to win the final two games. The pitcher in game 6 was an ex-Cub and an alcoholic. He won. He went out to celebrate and came into game 7 plastered.

With a 3-2 lead, two out and the bases loaded in the Yankee 7th, he comes in to finish the game for the save. Without clicking the link above, can you name the pitcher?

That would be Grover Cleveland Alexander, one of baseball's greatest pitchers, enjoying his last great moment in the spotlight. BTW, Alexander was portrayed on screen by none other than Ronald Reagan, in the 1952 film The Winning Team.

Go Yanks! Yahoooieeee!

Thanks very much to everybody for the kind comments.

A confession -- the reference to the Pittsburgh station broadcasting "Opera Without Music" is directly lifted from Rupert Holmes' classic, and dearly departed, TV show on American Movie Classics, "Remember WENN." It was one of the best tributes ever to the glory of old-time radio.

And if you'd like to hear a twist on "War of the Worlds," check out a GREAT re-adaptation online at www.reelradio.com. It was produced by Buffalo station WKBW in 1971, showing how the Martian invasion would have been covered by a top 40 music/news station of that time. To hear the Real Audio stream, search for WKBW and click on the link.

But be warned: if you're familiar with the sound of 1960s-70s AM radio, this will scare you half to death. It's even more f-f-frightening than the Welles version.

Just my way of saying Happy Halloween to everybody who posts on Free Republic.

Among the news networks, MSNBC is uniquely idiotic in one respect.

One night in late September, Ashley Banfield displayed on-air an editorial cartoon from a Pakistani newspaper. One prominent part of the cartoon was an outline map of Pakistan. Looking squarely at it, Ashley identified it as a "map of Afghanistan."

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A working journalist posted to a foreign country, who doesn't know what that country looks like on a map. Off in the distance, I thought I could hear Edward R. Murrow rolling over in his grave

Something similar happened two years ago, after the Moore, Okla. tornado of May 3, 1999. The next evening John Hockenberry raced down there for MSNBC, and told his viewers live on camera, and ON LOCATION, that Moore was located "25 miles northeast of Oklahoma City."

I'm sure that came as a big surprise to those of us who live in the area, and know that Moore borders Oklahoma City -- on the south.

Apparently you don't have to have a high school knowledge of geography, or the ability to read maps, to work at MSNBC.

Just a matter of time before many of the big-name liberals who were backing the war effort 1,000 percent start to wobble. "We can't win...too many civilian casualties...this will be another Vietnam." Whine, whine, whine. Fortunately, there's not enough of these people to matter.

Also, notice how CNN has practically turned into the Taliban Broadcasting System over the last few days? Every bit of "news" disseminated by our enemies is played up, without a hint of skepticism.

When I became a Yankees fan as a kid (a long, long time ago), I loved reading about the team's history. The Babe calling his shot...Gehrig bravely saying he was "the luckiest man on the face of the earth"...an injured Mantle hobbling to the plate and hammering a pitch off the scoreboard...Ruth's 60th, Maris' 61st, DiMaggio's 56. To me these weren't just baseball stories, they were tales of can-do American spirit.

It's great that people see in the Yankees -- again -- a symbol of American perseverence and will to win.

"When they look back and see 125 wins, tell them we never took a single one for granted. Teach them about our passion and our patience. If they ask who was our star, give them 25 names. And if you forget our names, just tell them we were Yankees." - Derek Jeter, 1998.

What are the origins of the phrase "breaking news" anyway?

It's derived from the term "breaking wind."